¡¡   ATHENS, Aug. 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Argentina won its first gold medalof the Olympics men's basketball tournament by beating Italy 84-69on Saturday.

    The best result for Argentina in the Olympics was a fourth-placed finish in 1952.

    The South American champions avenged their 76-75 loss to Italy in the preliminary round.

    After ousting the United States 89-81 in the semi-final, Argentina was more favored to win the title though Italy saw off European champions Lithuania in the other semi-final.

    Luis Scola set the tone of the championship game with 25 pointsand 11 rebounds for Argentina, which also received lifts from Emanuel Ginobili's 16 and Alejandro Montecchia's 17.

    Italy was outscored 24-15 in the fourth quarter, seeing the Argentines lead by 78-64 with two minutes left on the clock.

    Matteo Soragna and Gianmarco Pozzecco scored 12 points apiece for Italy, which was overwhelmed by 46-20 in the paint.

    Argentina led 34-25 with balanced offense midway in the second quarter, but let the Italians cut the lead to 43-41 at the half.

    After tying at 51-51 five minutes into the third quarter, Argentina took a tiny advantage of 60-54 to enter the decisive last 10 minutes.

    Earlier, the United States won the bronze medal with a 104-96 win over Lithuania. Enditem